March 2009

Defense of Thesis

Adam Obaza, MS candidate (major advisor: Dr. J. Trexler) successfully defended this thesis “Effectiveness of Drift Fences in Modeling Fish-Movement Rates” on March 24th.

Defense of Dissertations

Nikunj Patel, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. O. Weeks) successfully defended his dissertation "Contribution of the vasculature to the Alzheimer's disease process" on March 4th.

Claude Henry Volmar, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. O. Weeks) successfully defended his dissertation “Relevance of CD40/CD40L Interaction Downstream Pathways to Alzheimer's Disease” on March 4th.

Amanda Quillen, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. E. Gaiser) successfully defended her dissertation "Diatom-Based Paleolimnological Reconstruction of Quaternary Environments in a Florida Sinkhole Lake" on March 10th.

Chand Husby, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. S. Oberbauer) successfully defended his dissertation “Ecophysiology and Biomechanics of Equisetum Giganteum in South America” on March 24th.

Publications

James Valdés, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. O. Weeks) authored the following paper:

Valdés JJ, Weeks OI. 2009. Estradiol and lithium chloride specifically alter NMDA receptor subunit NR1 mRNA and excitotoxicity in primary cultures. Brain Res. In press

Nora Oleas, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. J. Francisco Ortega) co-authored the following paper:

Oleas, N.H., Meerow A.W, Francisco-Ortega, J. 2009 Eight microsatellite loci in Phaedranassa schizantha Baker (Amaryllidaceae) and cross-amplification in other Phaedranassa species. Conservation Genetics DOI 10.1007/s10592-009-9846-8

Roxaneh Khorsand, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. S. Koptur) authored the following paper:
Khorsand Rosa, R. and S. Koptur. 2009. Preliminary observations and analyses of pollination in Coccothrinax argentata: do insects play a role? PALMS. In press

Grants

Gregory Koch, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. E. Gaiser) was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Everglades Foundation for his project “Dynamics of Ecosystem Metabolism, Flocculent Detrital Source and Transport".

Brett Jestrow, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. J. Francisco Ortega) received a NSF grant from the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students (EAPSI) for his project "A Conservation Genetics Study of Cymbidium cyperifolium (Orchidaceae)". He will spend seven weeks this summer doing field work at The Yachang Orchid Nature Reserve in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and lab work at The Chinese National Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Roxaneh Khorsand, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. S. Koptur) received
a $15,000 NSF Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project Grant and a Fulbright fellowship to carry out her field work in Roraima, Brazil for the next two years.

Presentations

Robert Hegna, MS candidate (major advisor: Dr. M. Donnelly) gave a talk entitled “Aposematism in the Strawberry Poison Frog (Oophaga pumilio): The Effect of Frog Density, Color, and Spot Pattern on Predation” on March 12 at the Department of Biology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

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